Blanket



Aug. 17, 1937'.

W. A. NEAVES BI\JANKET Filed Feb. 29, 1936 W fiver Near as Guam Patented Aug. 17, 1937 UNITED STATES BLANKET William Avery Neavcs, Elkin, N. C., assignor to Chatham Manufacturing Company, Winston- Salem, N. 0., a corporation of North Carolina Application February 29, 1936, Serial No. 66,488

1 Claim.

This invention relates to textile fabrics and particularly to a wool and cotton blanket char-.

acterized by unusual durability, resistance to shrinking, and extraordinary thickness and consequent warmth.

One of the objects of the invention is the construction of a blanket having a cotton warp, the weft being constructed by loose wool rovings carried on a thin core of cotton yarn or other vegetable fiber and interwoven with the warp.

A more specific object of the invention is to construct a blanket having two warps of cotton or other vegetable fiber and nappy loose wool wefts so interwoven that they lie between the warps as well as on both faces of the warps, thus giving thickness to the blanket and enhancing its'capacity for entraining air.

Other objects of the invention will appear as In the drawing which accompanies and forms ,a part of the following specification and throughout the several figures'of which the same characters of reference have been employed to designate identical parts:

Figure l is a diagrammatic plan view of a blanket made according to the principles of this invention;

Figure 2 is a cross section taken, along the line 2--2 of Figure 1; and I Figure 3 is a detail view showing the construction of the weft thread.

Referring now in detail to the several figures two sets of warp threads I and 2 are illustrated in Figure 1 and found distinguished by one set being shown light while the other set is shown stippled. These warps are preferably of cotton or other suitable vegetable fiber characterized by tensile strength as well as by their non-shrinking property.

The weft yarns 3 are preferably constituted by a thread 4, see Figure 3, of cotton or other suitable vegetable fiber, carrying on its outer surface a lightly spun yarn or roving 5 of wool. This wool roving is so loosely constituted that in itself it would prove a non-durable thread and would in itself result in an easily destructible blanket, but by virtue of the vegetable fiber thread 4, the weft yarn is strong and tenacious and gives to the blanket the same durability as though it were cotton both weftwise as well as warpwise. The loose texture of the roving gives the wool fibers maximum liberty of movement in exercising their quality of elasticity and at the same time provides the optimum magnitude and multiplicity of air spaces for the entrainment of air and which, as is well known, gives warmth to the blanket.

The nature of the weaving is such that the weft yarns pass between as well as on the outside of to the right.

the warps introducing the elastic woolly and foraminous fibers between the warps, making the wool content at least three layers thick in all sections of the blanket, but of loose open texture,

producing unusual lightness and thickness and capacity to hold air.

' In Figure 2 the nature of an exemplary form of weaving is disclosed in which certain successive weft yarns of Figure 1 are designated as a, b, and c. It will be observed that the weft yarn 11 passes above a warp thread of the upper warp, then between warp threads of the upper and lower warps and beneath a warp thread of the lower warp and that each of the weft yarns is similarly interwoven, shifting each time one warp thread The result is as is evident from Figure 2 that at every point there are two of the loose woolly weft threads intervening between the threads of the two warps. Ordinarily the warps would be pulled together by such tension as exists in the weft yarns, but in the present instance the weft yarns being woolly and elastic, continually press the warps apart and looseness of the rovings assures the maximum elastic pressure. The warps'are faced both above and below as well as between with the loose wool rovings, it being evident that a blanket so woven will be thick, elastic, light and warm, having every appearance of an all-wool blanket since the cotton or other vegetable fibers are altogether coneealed, but having the strength of a cotton fabric.

The specific weave illustrated in the drawing is merely exemplary of any pattern which may be employed in the carrying out of the invention, it being essential only that the loose wool rovin'gs on the carrier threads of cotton or the like shall lie between the warps as well as on both outer sides of them.

While I have in the above description disclosed what I believe to be a preferred and practical embodiment of the invention, it willbe understood to those skilled in the art that the details as shown and described shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention as claimed.

What I claim is:

Blanket fabric comprising two cotton warps in superposed relation, and a weft constituted by a cotton carrier thread covered by a nappy loose wool roving, the unit of the weaving pattern consisting'ofthree adjacent weft yarns each passing above a thread of one warp, between the next two threads of each of both warps and below the next thread of the other warp, the three weft yarns being successively displaced a distance of one warp thread, said pattern providing a nappy surface outside of both warps and nappy yarns between said warps pressing said warps apart through the inherent resiliency of the nap.

WILLIAM AVERY NEAVES. 

